The Eugene Halliday Podcast
Eugene Halliday (1911–1987) was a British artist, writer and teacher. Possessing a profound understanding of philosophy, religion and the science of his day, he published 15 books and gave over 250 recorded talks. Much of his work centred on his interpretation of the esoteric ideas behind religion. The purpose of this podcast is to share Halliday’s teachings.
Episodes
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
Episode 19 - Here and Now
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
Sunday Feb 19, 2023
Talk given at Parklands (Manchester, UK) in 1968.
Consider the word time; we see that it reads in the opposite direction, emit. This is a reference to the energy that is released every moment by any existential observer of time. In other words, you cannot observe time without releasing energy moment by moment. So time, as experienced by human beings depends on energy emission by those human beings.
All experienced events are protensive, meaning that they are stretched in time. They have duration; i.e. a protensive event is taking time for me to perform it. "Philosophically, all our experience is based on protensive events. We are seeing things extended in space and time. It takes time to see space, so that we cannot separate space and time and the energy that we expend in perceiving them. Space, time, power we must think of as a trinity. Do not think of power being expended except through time on a given space."
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
(Note: The audio contained in this episode commences after the heading 'Track 3' in the notes provided.)
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
Episode 18 - The Aquarian Age
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
Sunday Feb 05, 2023
Talk given in Liverpool, UK, in 1962.
What is the true significance and the historical process which the human race as we know today, is undergoing? Our contemporary mode of thought is scientific. As we enter the Aquarian phase of our evolution, this means that the scientific spirit will develop to the nth degree. Science will have so many devices that can prove certain things to exist that people will tend to accept the scientist as the supreme arbiter of human destiny.
However, "...if we examine the scientists today throughout the world we find that a spirit that was once said to be the scientific spirit has practically disappeared. The scientific spirit of the nineteenth century...was stated to be absolutely impartial. It was an objective pursuit of truth, knowing no boundaries whatever of religion, race, creeds, nations and so on, scientific information should be swapped, because truth is every man's. This was stated to be their position. We know this was a leg-pull on the part of men who wanted power because as soon as they got the power they began to shelter that knowledge, they did not indulge in free exchange of scientific knowledge when they had discovered the nuclear weapon. Suddenly science is hush hush. Instead of a man being free to publish his findings in international magazines, he was suddenly silenced. His government required him not to speak about essentials. The scientist who believed in the old-fashioned idea of science, as for universal distribution found himself very seriously hindered. Many scientists actually allowed themselves to be bought over by governments and worked for a government in the pursuit of power instead of for the human race."
This belief (worship) in the primacy of 'scientific truth' is external to the individual centre of man. As such, it is but another idol that the Absolute will smash.
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Sunday Jan 22, 2023
Episode 17 - Bending the Knee
Sunday Jan 22, 2023
Sunday Jan 22, 2023
Talk given in Liverpool, UK.
"It is quite obvious that of the millions of people that we know, they don't strive for perfection at all. Most of them don't strive at all in any way because striving implies the application of effort over a time in some sort of directional sense. Most people don't have a directional sense and don't strive."
Technically speaking, the word 'people' means 'knee-benders', or sexually determined. As such, people move along lines of least resistance, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. This is the bottom level of a hierarchy. Above it we can see three (3) other levels, or modes of being, each bending the knee to a different idea or force. Above them is that which we can't see; the quintessence, or fifth essence.
What will you bend the knee to?
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Tuesday Jan 10, 2023
Episode 16 - Arrogance
Tuesday Jan 10, 2023
Tuesday Jan 10, 2023
Talk given at Parklands (Manchester, UK) on 22nd February 1987.
Arrogance is defined as "the taking to oneself, of anything whatever, without entitlement". If an individual believes they have something of themselves not derivative from the Absolute - that is arrogance.
Our lowest level of conferring a title/label of responsibility comes from people. The next level of conferring titles/labels of responsibility is an elected government; who, once they’ve been elected, think of themselves as an elect body, separate from the dullards who elected them. And they then elect those suitable for their purpose.
So, we have a relatively small group elect someone to be a responsible person and do as they're told by the electors – like an American president. He’s not there by his own power. He’s there by a group – an oligarchy. (‘Oligarchy’ is ‘ruler-ship by a tightly bound small group’.)
Thirdly, the Absolute elects the electors. The real battle is the battle between the Absolute, which is infinite, wise, powerful; and the relatively small group – the oligarchy – of the bigger group – the masses of people. But the one that’s going to win, because it started the whole process, is the Absolute.
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Friday Dec 23, 2022
Episode 15 - Hierology
Friday Dec 23, 2022
Friday Dec 23, 2022
Talk given at Parklands (Manchester, UK) on 29th September 1968.
Hierology is the study of the sacred traditions of ancient peoples. It is concerned with the technique of the differentiations of power that turn might into right.
As the backdrop for this discussion, Eugene considers that "we are slowly moving towards a third world war. The reason we are studying hierology, is related to this fact. In the last war, the Nagasaki-Hiroshima bombs, demonstrated that there is very, very serious danger to civilian populations. What we know about men at war, historically, is that he has used all the power he has had at command. We have not found him inhibiting the use of the power he has had."
"We cannot expect that the men leading the world today, the men who have at their command, nuclear weapons, will quite suddenly develop self-control in the use of force."
Given such a scenario, what is the duty of individuals?
How should we apply our initiative?
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Episode 14 - The Absolute
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Sunday Dec 04, 2022
Talk given in Liverpool, circa 1960.
"If the Absolute can only perceive through a finite, does not this suppose that the universe and all beings in it are already finited in all their stages of evolution?"
Eugene explores questions concerning the Absolute; including man's role as a vehicle of perception, the Logos Principle, and the relationship between Immanent Spirit and Transcendent Spirit.
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Episode 13 - The Deficiencies of Phenomenology
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Sunday Nov 20, 2022
Talk given at Parklands (Manchester, UK) on 23rd May 1976.
What does it mean to describe an object as being ‘out there’? If I say that something is 'out there', it is only so in relation to my body. Instead, consider the object as an appearance within consciousness. To do this we need to get rid of the out there-ness, so that we merely deal with appearances.
Eugene describes the steps involved in this process of phenomenological reduction...and its consequences.
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Episode 12 - The Two Paths
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
Sunday Nov 06, 2022
A talk about two ways of living - the Way of the Moon and the Way of the Sun.
The Way of the Moon: A synonym of ancestor worship; parent worship. Children have to be grateful to parents because the parents have provided a body. And the parents have to be grateful to the children for projecting the intention of the parent from generation to generation.
The Way of the Sun: The affirmation of freedom. It does not mean obedience to parents. It does not mean obedience to collectives, to societies as such. It means individual free will.
We can either live from the dictates of a collective, or we can live from the intention of our own free inner will.
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Episode 11 - Four Fixed Signs of the Zodiac
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Talk given at Parklands (Manchester, UK) on 25th January 1981.
Eugene discusses the present significance of the four fixed signs of the zodiac; Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius.
These signs correspond with the four gospels of the New Testament and with four beasts before the throne of God in the Old Testament. They also correspond with four headings in the Egyptian burial ritual (i.e. three animals and one man) - and they actually correspond with parts of a human being and with four processes:
You have to bind yourself … that’s Taurus.
You have to relatively loosen yourself or you will become rigid … and the loosening is Leo.
You are to dedicate yourself — which is Scorpio — to this process of self-examination of the internal chaos.
And bring into it an order by looking inside and discovering Aquarius … that is the sign of memory.
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Episode 10 - Applying What We Know
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Sunday Oct 09, 2022
Talk given at Parklands (Manchester, UK) on 2nd October 1983.
Human beings have been collecting information for thousands of years about correct behaviour to each other, but they have not yet begun to apply that in any considerable degree.
Every year, millions of people are killed by accidents, by wars, by diseases, by starvation and so on. Why have we not yet learned the lesson, when we know the lesson already?
A transcript is available at www.eugene-halliday.net.
Who was Eugene Halliday?
Eugene Halliday (1911–1987) was a British artist, writer and teacher. For a large part of his life he lived and taught in Manchester, running groups and giving guidance and personal tuition to a large number of interested people. Possessing a profound understanding of philosophy, religion and the science of his day, he published 15 books and gave over 250 recorded talks.
Much of his work centred on his interpretation of the esoteric ideas behind religion. Halliday gave the term “absolute sentient power” to what we would call God and said that sentience and thus consciousness was an inherent quality of this power and by extension of all beings. Beings are modalities of this power, which we feel as a field of energy.
He believed that the goal and purpose of life is to grow towards an awareness of our true nature, which is not different from this field and the absolute sentient power itself. This consciousness he called reflexive self-consciousness. The force which calls and drives beings to work is Love – which he defined as “a will to work for the development of the potentialities of all beings.” He valued individuality and encouraged others to discover their own valid way to reveal reflexivity to themselves.
The purpose of this podcast is to share Halliday’s teachings.
Note - Additional talks and transcripts are available at www.eugene-halliday.net